…Best percent-capacity figures in the CHL in 2016-17…
Below are the 12 teams in the CHL that were best at filling their arena, in 2016-17. (Best Percent-Capacity, or: Average Attendance divided-by Seated Capacity.) 7 of these teams are in the OHL. 3 of these teams are in the WHL. 2 of these teams are in the QMJHL. The top 2 played to SRO (standing-room-only)…the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies of the QMJHL, and the Oshawa Generals of the OHL.
#1). Rouyn-Noranda Huskies (QMJHL): 103.6 percent-capacity (2,228 per game in their 2,150-capacity arena [ie, 78-standing-room-only-customers-per-game]).
#2). Oshawa Generals (OHL): 100.5 percent-capacity (5,209 per game in their 5,180-capacity arena [ie, 29-standing-room-only-customers-per-game]).
#3). London Knights (OHL): 99.5 percent-capacity (9,003 per game in their 9,046-capacity arena).
#4). Kitchener Rangers (OHL): 98.3 percent-capacity (7,015 per game in their 7,131-capacity arena).
#5). Kelowna Rockets (WHL): 93.7 percent-capacity (5,162 per game in their 5,507-capacity arena).
#6). Niagara IceDogs (OHL): 90.6 percent-capacity (4,804 per game in their 5,300-capacity arena).
#7). Barrie Colts (OHL): 88.4 percent-capacity (3,709 per game in their 4,195-capacity arena).
#8). Guelph Storm (OHL): 86.1 percent-capacity (4,063 per game in their 4,715-capacity arena).
#9). Shawingan Cataractes (QMJHL): 85.9 percent-capacity (3,545 per game in their 4,125-capacity arena).
#10). Regina Pats (WHL): 84.1 percent-capacity (5,456 per game in their 6,484-capacity arena).
#11). Owen Sound Attack (OHL): 82.8 percent-capacity (2,898 per game in their 3,500-capacity arena).
#12). Prince Albert Raiders (WHL): 82.6 percent-capacity (2,133 per game in their 2,580-capacity arena).
___
Thanks to all at the following links…
-List of Memorial Cup champions/Tournament appearances by current CHL teams.
-WHL/ Ed Chynoweth Cup.
-OHL/ J. Ross Robertson Cup.
-QMJHL/ President’s Cup (en.wikipedia.org).
-Hockey Data Base.com.

Windsor, Ontario will host the 2017 Memorial Cup…
The 2017 Memorial Cup tournament will be held at the 6,450-capacity WFCU Centre in Windsor, Ontario, with the OHL’s Windsor Spitfires the host-team. Windsor is just across the border from Detroit, Michigan {see illustration below}. The tournament will run from May 19th to May 28th, 2017. Here is a preview, from the Hockey Writers.com,2017 Memorial Cup Teams Preview (by David Jewell on Wednesday May 17 2017 at thehockeywriters.com).

…The location-map here shows the 12-team Hockey East conference.
The Hockey East conference has teams spread throughout the 6 New England states, plus Notre Dame in Indiana – but Notre Dame will be leaving the Hockey East conference after the 2016-17 season, to join Big Ten Conference hockey {for that, see my post on Big Ten conference hockey}.

Once Notre Dame leaves (after 2016-17), Hockey East will once again be based entirely in the New England states…
Hockey East has 6 teams from Massachusetts. One is based in the central region of the state: UMass (of Amherst, MA/which is 75 miles west of Boston). 5 teams are based in the College-hockey-Mecca of Greater Boston…with Boston University and Northeastern in Boston, proper; and 3 teams in Greater Boston…Boston College (of Chestnut Hill, MA/6 miles west of downtown Boston), UMass-Lowell (of Lowell, MA/23 miles north), and Merrimack College [of North Andover/33 miles north of the Hub]). One team is located in Vermont (Vermont [of Burlington, VT, which is on the eastern side of Lake Champlain]). One team is located in New Hampshire (UNH or New Hampshire [of Durham, NH, which is just east of Manchester, NH and is a few miles inland from Portsmouth, NH, and is 54 miles north of Boston]). One team is located in Maine (Maine [of Orono, ME, which is 115 miles north-east and inland from Portland, ME]). One team is located in Rhode Island (Providence [of Providence, RI, which is 41 miles south of Boston]). And one team is located in Connecticut (UConn – aka Connecticut [of Storrs, CT, with the team playing home games 26 miles west in Hartford, CT]).

The map…
The map is based on my recently-posted 60-team NCAA D1-hockey location-map {see it here}. The 12 Hockey East teams’ crests, colors and locations are shown on the map. Each team’s color-circle, which radiates out from their location-dot, is sized to represent average attendance…the larger the circle, the higher the team’s average attendance. Crowd-size-rank within the 60-team-D1 is also noted – by the number next to the team-name on the map and on the attendance-list. (North Dakota is the highest-drawing D1-hockey team, currently.)

The chart at the right side of the map page shows attendance data. Along with average attendances of the Hockey East teams (2015-16 home regular season figures), arena sizes and percent-capacities are listed. Also shown, below the attendance data, is a list showing all D1-hockey titles which have been won by teams that currently play in the conference (in this case, all titles won by teams in Hockey East). Finally, at the lower-right of the map-page is a chart showing all D1-hockey teams’ titles and Frozen Four appearances (39 of the 60 D1-hockey teams).

Hockey East was established in 1984-85…
Hockey East was formed in 1984-85, by five former ECAC teams: the Boston College Eagles, the Boston University Terriers, the New Hampshire Wildcats, the Northeastern Huskies, and the Providence Friars. These 5 decided to create their own league, because of scheduling concerns (they feared that the Ivy League teams in the ECAC would form their own conference, but that never came about). It also cannot be denied that the Hockey East set-up has decreased travel costs among its member-teams (seeing as it is basically a New-England-only-based conference). Before Hockey East’s inaugural season started in the fall of 1984, two more teams joined the new conference: the Maine Black Bears and the UMass-Lowell River Hawks. The Merrimack Warriors joined Hockey East in 1989-90. The UMass Minutemen joined Hockey East in 1994-95. The Vermont Catamounts joined Hockey East in 2005-06. And the UConn Huskies joined in 2014-15.

Of the top 20-drawing D1-hockey teams, 7 are from Hockey East.
#8-best-drawing UMass-Lowell River Hawks draw in the mid-5-K-range (5,592 per game and at a solid 93.2 percent-capacity in their 6-K-capacity arena). UConn draws 5.1K, Boston College draws 4.9 K, New Hampshire draws 4.8 K, Boston University draws 4.3 K, and Maine (the 20th-highest drawing D1-hockey team), draws 3.9 K. (Note: soon-to-be-departed-for-the-Big-Ten Notre Dame also draws in the top 20, at 4.9 K in their 5.0-K-capacity arena, for a very good 94.6 percent-capacity.) One other note: Providence and Vermont both play to some of the best percent-capacities in D1-hockey…2015 champs Providence basically play to sold-out crowds these days, drawing 2.9 K in their 3.0-K-capacity arena at 98.3 percent-capacity; while Vermont is 21st-highest-drawing D1-hockey team at 3.8 K in their 4.0-K-capacity arena, for an outstanding 95.7 percent-capacity.

In the 32 seasons since Hockey East was formed, there have been 9 D1-hockey titles won by Hockey East teams.
Those 9 titles have been won by 4 teams…the Boston College Eagles, with 4 [of their 5] D1 titles won as a Hockey East team (in 2001, 2008, 2012, and 2014); the Maine Black Bears, with both of their D1 titles won as a Hockey East team (in 1993 and 1999), the Boston University Terriers, with 2 [of their 5] D1 titles won as a Hockey East team (in 1995 and 2009); and the Providence Friars, who won their first D1-hockey title two seasons ago in 2015. So, that means Hockey East has won 28 percent of the last 32 D1-hockey titles, since its inception. That shows you that Hockey East is one of the elite D1-hockey conferences.

Hockey East has also produced 14 other D1-championship-game-finalists. As far as Final Four appearances go, 9 of the 12 Hockey East teams have made it to the Final Four at least once, with Boston College having made the most Final Four appearances of all the D1-hockey teams: 25 times, including last year (2016). Boston University also has a large number of Final Four appearances: 22 (last in 2015). To round out the rest…Maine has made 11 Final Four appearances (last in 2007). New Hampshire has made 7 Final Four appearances (last in 2003). Providence has made 4 Final Four appearances (last in 2015). Vermont has made 2 Final Four appearances (last in 2009). U-Mass Lowell made a Final Four appearance in 2014. And Northeastern made a Final Four appearance in 1982. (Notre Dame has made 2 Frozen Four appearances (last in 2011).)
___
Thanks to all at the following links…
-Thanks to AMK1211 for blank map of USA, ‘File:Blank US Map with borders.svg”>File:Blank US Map with borders.svg‘ (commons.wikimedia.org).
-Thanks to Two Hearted River at en.wikipedia.org/[each teams' page at Wikipedia], for small segments of jersey illustrations of several teams (Wisconsin, Minnesota-Duluth, Cornell, Maine, Minnesota State, Vermont, Yale, UMass, Western Michigan, Canisius College, American International), such as at File:ECAC-Uniform-Cornell.png.
-Thanks to USCHO site for attendance data, Men’s Division I Hockey Attendance: 2015-2016 (uscho.com).

The location-map here shows the 10-team Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA).
The WCHA has teams spread through 5 states, some of which are extremely far apart: 4 teams from Michigan (Ferris State, and 3 teams from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula: Lake Superior State, Michigan Tech, and Northern Michigan), 2 teams from Minnesota (Minnesota State [Mankato] and Bemidji State), 2 teams from Alaska (Alaska-Anchorage and Alaska-Fairbanks), 1 team from Ohio (Bowling Green), and 1 team from Alabama (Alabama-Huntsville).

The map…
The map is based on my recently-posted 60-team NCAA D1-hockey location-map {see it here}. The WCHA hockey teams’ crests, colors and arena-locations are shown on the map. Each team’s color-circle, which radiates out from their location-dot, is sized to represent average attendance…the larger the circle, the higher the team’s average attendance. Crowd-size-rank within the 60-team-D1-hockey is also noted – by the number next to the team-name on the map and on the attendance-list. (North Dakota is the highest-drawing D1-hockey team, currently.)

The chart at the right side of the map page shows attendance data. Along with average attendances of the WCHA teams (2015-16 home regular season figures), arena sizes and percent-capacities are listed. Also shown, below the attendance data, is a list showing all D1-hockey titles which have been won by teams that currently play in the conference (in this case, all titles won by teams in the WCHA). Finally, at the lower-right of the map-page is a chart showing all D1-hockey teams’ titles and Frozen Four appearances (39 of the 60 D1-hockey teams). (Michigan has the most D1-hockey titles, but the Wolverines have not won a D1-hockey title in eighteen years (last in 1998); meanwhile, with North Dakota winning the title last season (2015-16), they have moved past Denver up to second-most D1-hockey titles, with 8. The D1-hockey team with the most Frozen Four appearances is the Boston College Eagles, with 25.)
…

The D1-hockey realignment saw the WCHA turn from a major conference into a mid-minor…

The WCHA is extremely different from what it was before 2013 – the WCHA now has a vast (and frankly unwieldy) spread of teams: in Alaska, Alabama, Michigan, Minnesota, and Ohio {see WCHA former-members and WCHA timeline}. The WCHA was once one of the most elite D1-hockey conferences. That can be seen simply by the fact that the WCHA owns the record for the most D1-hockey titles…36 D1-hockey titles have been won by WCHA teams. But the vast majority of those titles – 27 D1-hockey titles – were won by four of the biggest D1-hockey teams, all of whom opted to leave the WCHA in 2013…Denver (with 7 D1-hockey titles won as a WCHA member), North Dakota (also with 7 D1-hockey titles won as a WCHA member), Wisconsin (with 6 D1-hockey titles won as a WCHA member), and Minnesota (with 5 D1-hockey titles won as a WCHA member). Also leaving the WCHA in 2013 were every other team that had fanbases sizable enough to draw above 4-K-per-game (Duluth, Colorado College, Nebraska-Omaha, St. Cloud). Leaving all the small schools left in the conference (Alaska-Anchorage, Bemidji State, Michigan Tech, Minnesota State, Northern Michigan). Then 5 schools, four of them refugees from the implosion of the CCHA, all ended up in the re-vamped and gutted new WCHA. All were from schools whose D1-hockey teams had fanbases which did not have the ability to draw above 3-K-per-game. (Alaska-Fairbanks, Alabama-Huntsville, Bowling Green [Ohio], Ferris State [Michigan], and Lake Superior State [Upper Peninsula of Michigan].) So the once-powerhouse WCHA was turned into a completely-small-school conference, and travel costs were guaranteed to go up, because of the unwieldy spread of the teams now in the conference.

If you want to know how that all happened, well, blame mid-major-program paranoia spiced with a dose of greed (shown by the schools that bolted to the new NCHC), combined with Penn State’s general bull-in-china-shop behavior, and Minnesota’s D1-hockey front office (who ignored the fans’ wishes to keep local rivalries) and ditto Wisconsin…in other words blame the Big East. As it says in the following article, Big Ten shaking up college hockey, just not on the ice, “The Western Collegiate Hockey Association is a shell of its former self and bleeding money since Minnesota and Wisconsin left. Six other former WCHA schools — including 2015 Frozen Four participants North Dakota and Nebraska-Omaha — left to start the National Collegiate Hockey Conference because of concerns that they would be overshadowed by the Big Ten if they stayed.” (quote from article by Eric Olson at Detroit Free Prees/ freep.com on Feb. 26 2016).

The inclusion of Penn State as a D1-hockey team led to the 2011-2013-era realignment in D1-hockey. The shakeup in D1-hockey conferences occurred in much the same way (and in nearly the same time-period) as the recent realignments in NCAA D1-football and in NCAA D1-basketball. After the dust had settled in D1-hockey, there was 6 conferences instead of 5, and one conference was dissolved – the Central Collegiate Hockey Associaition (CCHA). (The CCHA existed as a D1-hockey conference from 1973-2013; five teams left the CCHA to join the WCHA in 2013-14: Northern Michigan, Alaska Fairbanks, Bowling Green, Ferris State, Lake Superior State). And another conference was, for all intents and purposes, asset-stripped: the WCHA.

The conference that ended up most diminished in stature, after the D1-hockey realignment, was the WCHA.
The WCHA ended up losing 8 teams in 2013…Colorado College, Denver, Minnesota, Minnesota-Duluth, North Dakota, Omaha, St. Cloud State, and Wisconsin. Basically all the teams that left the WCHA in 2013 were the big-title-winning teams-and-/-or-the-higher-drawing-teams…those aforementioned big-drawing/title-winning teams (Denver, Minnesota, North Dakota, and Wisconsin); an up-and-coming D1-hockey team: Minnesota-Duluth (who were D1-hockey champions in 2011, and were the 5th-highest-drawing D1-hockey team in 2015-16); and another high-drawing (though relatively new and title-less) team, Nebraska-Omaha, who are the fourth-highest-drawing team these days in D1-hockey. The sad fact of the matter is that none of the teams now in the WCHA draw higher than 3.7-K-per-game. And no current WCHA team has won the D1-hockey title in more than two decades. The most-recent D1-hockey title-winner from the present-day WCHA was Lake Superior State 22 years ago, in 1994.

And no WCHA team has made it to the Frozen Four since the 2013 realignment that gutted the WCHA. The most-recent Frozen Four team from the WCHA was the St. Cloud Huskies in 2013 (but St. Cloud is also now in the NCHC). I don’t know how you can see it otherwise: the practical upshot of the 2013 realignment is this… the big boys (Big Ten and Minnesota and Wisconsin and Penn State), got to dictate terms, and the result was that all the biggest teams bolted from two conferences (the now-defunct CCHA and the now-asset-stripped WCHA). And just left many of the small-school D1-hockey teams to twist in the wind. In a conference which makes no geographical sense, amid a realignment that makes no sense except for the big boys. A realignment that has confused the whole D1-hockey world with unanswered questions. Like, for starters, why is Air Force Academy – of Colorado Springs, CO – still in the Atlantic conference and not in the NCHC or the WCHA? Or why, exactly, should the 5 D1-hockey teams from the state of Minnesota be in THREE different conferences? Or why, exactly, should the 7 D1-hockey teams from the state of Michigan also be in THREE different conferences? Or why would you throw away a great rivalry like North Dakota versus Minnesota? I thought the whole concept of realignment meant to consolidate, not to Balkanize.

And meanwhile, Big Ten hockey teams are underperforming since the realignment.
I find it interesting that since the realignment, no Big Ten D1-hockey teams have made it to the Frozen Four (2013-14, 2014-15, 2015-16: 3-seasons/16-spots, and zero Big Ten teams in the Frozen Four). Meanwhile, by its very far-flung and patched-together and decidedly-small-school nature, the WCHA has now become doomed to near-total obscurity. And travel costs have gone up around 40% per team in the WCHA since realignment {again, see this article, Big Ten shaking up college hockey, just not on the ice}. The WCHA used to make a healthy profit for its schools; now it is deep in the red, with announced losses of over a million dollars last season {see last link}. And so many great Upper Midwest D1-hockey rivalries were abandoned. For example, most-if-not-all Minnesota hockey fans would rather see their Golden Gophers versus North Dakota or Wisconsin or Duluth (or Bemidji or St. Cloud), not versus friggin’ Penn State or Ohio State. Penn State has been a big success in D1-hockey, but do you really think that would be the case without their sugar daddy (Pegula) ?. And besides, Penn State is in an entirely different region to Minnesota, with very little cultural overlap. And the embarrassing attendances for Big Ten D1-hockey conference finals bear this out – thanks to the fact that the University of Minnesota crammed the Big Ten D1-hockey concept down the throats of lifelong and multi-generational Minnesota-college-hockey-fans, who just want to see the Gophers play their real rivals, all of whom are within an easy road-trip away. Not in Pennsyl-tucky or in the part of Ohio that only cares about college football and basketball. Don’t get me started on the viability of Ohio State as a D1-hockey power…because the vast majority of people in central and south-central Ohio do not care about hockey. At all.

Post-realignment, there has been no real practical advantage gained for the teams outside the NCHC and the Big Ten.
Sure the NCHC teams are doing OK, but that is because they all ABANDONED THE SMALL SCHOOLS. And there’s no extra television revenue or exposure for any other D1-hockey teams outside the Big Ten, because D1-hockey has no significant television footprint, while the Big Ten has its own regional, and powerful, television network. The Big Ten network has no interest in promoting D1-hockey – it only has an interest in promoting Big Ten teams. D1-hockey is a niche sport. D1-hockey is extremely tied to ticket-paying support, not to television exposure. Local rivalries are the lifeblood of niche-sports, like D1-hockey, which depends heavily on ticket-paying support. Minnesota Golden Gophers fans’ displeasure can be seen in this quote from the first article I linked to, “The actual number of tickets scanned per game also has fallen since the Gophers left the WCHA, from 8,162 in 2012-13 to 7,604 last year. Scalpers outside Mariucci [Arena] say they are getting $15 for tickets with a face value of $45, and many go unsold even at that price. The Big Ten tournament has been a disappointment, too, with attendance a fraction of the 87,295 that packed Xcel Energy Center [in St. Paul, MN] for the last WCHA tournament in 2013.” (quote from Big Ten hockey is a buzzkill for fans in Minnesota – Plenty of fans aren’t buying what new hockey league is selling – (by Rachel Blount at startribune.com on Feb. 26 2016).

So, 3 years into the realignment, because of very poor ticket sales, especially in D1-hockey conference finals these past few years, now here’s three D1-hockey conference presidents acknowledging as much: WCHA pushing to to team with Big Ten, NCHC in conference finals (by David McCoy at minnesota.cbslocal.com on March 20 2016).

How long until people start talking about the realignments that need to be made in D1-hockey to correct the Balkanized realignment of 2013?
___
Thanks to all at the following links…
-Thanks to AMK1211 for blank map of USA, ‘File:Blank US Map with borders.svg”>File:Blank US Map with borders.svg‘ (commons.wikimedia.org).
-Thanks to Two Hearted River at en.wikipedia.org/[each teams' page at Wikipedia], for small segments of jersey illustrations of several teams (Wisconsin, Minnesota-Duluth, Cornell, Maine, Minnesota State, Vermont, Yale, UMass, Western Michigan, Canisius College, American International), such as at File:ECAC-Uniform-Cornell.png.
-Thanks to USCHO site for attendance data, Men’s Division I Hockey Attendance: 2015-2016 (uscho.com).

Division I NCAA hockey was instituted in 1948.
(Division I NCAA hockey titles, 1948 to 2015-16/ 69 titles.)
The inclusion of Penn State as a D1-hockey team led to the 2011-2013-era realignment in D1-hockey. The shakeup in D1-hockey conferences occurred in much the same way (and in nearly the same time-period) as the recent realignments in NCAA D1-football and in NCAA D1-basketball. After the dust had settled in D1-hockey, there was 6 conferences instead of 5, and one conference was dissolved – the Central Collegiate Hockey Associaition (CCHA). (The CCHA existed as a D1-hockey conference from 1973-2013; the two teams which left the CCHA to join the brand-new NCHC are listed two paragraphs below.) (Note: there is one Independent D1-hockey team, Arizona State.)

The location-map here shows the twelve-team ECAC hockey conference…
Formed in 1961-62, the ECAC D1-hockey conference used to be affiliated with the Eastern College Athletic Conference, a consortium of over 300 colleges in the eastern United States. This relationship ended in 2004; however, the ECAC abbreviation was retained in the name of the hockey conference. The ECAC was the only D1 men’s hockey conference that remained unchanged during the major conference realignment in 2011 and 2012.

The ECAC has teams spread through 6 states in the Northeast and in New England…6 teams from New York (Clarkson, Colgate, Cornell, Rensselaer, St. Lawrence, Union College), 2 teams from Connecticut (Quinnipiac and Yale), 1 team from Massachusetts (Harvard), 1 team from Rhode Island (Brown), 1 team from New Hampshire (Dartmouth), and 1 team from New Jersey (Princeton). (There are 6 Ivy League teams in the ECAC: Brown, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, Yale. The Ivy League does not have a D1-hockey conference, but each season the best-finisher of the 6 wins the Ivy League D1-hockey title.)

There are 5 distinct two-team clusters in the ECAC. Two teams are located in Central New York, situated 55 miles apart: Colgate (of Hamilton, NY) and Cornell (of Ithaca , NY). Two teams are located in the St. Lawrence Seaway area of Northern New York, situated 10 miles apart: Clarkson (of Potsdam, NY) and St. Lawrence (of Canton, NY). Two teams are located in the Capital/Tri-Cities region of New York, situated 14 miles apart: Rensselaer (of Troy, NY) and Union College (of Schenectady, NY). Two teams are located in south-eastern New England, situated 41 miles apart: Brown (of Providence, RI) and Harvard (of Cambridge, MA). And two teams are located in south-central Connecticut, situated just 5 miles apart: Quinnipiac (of Hamden, CT) and Yale (of New Haven, CT).

The map…
The map is based on my recently-posted 60-team NCAA D1-hockey location-map {see it here}. The 12 ECAC teams’ crests, colors and locations are shown on the map. Each team’s color-circle, which radiates out from their location-dot, is sized to represent average attendance…the larger the circle, the higher the team’s average attendance. Crowd-size-rank within the 60-team-D1 is also noted – by the number next to the team-name on the map and on the attendance-list. (North Dakota is the highest-drawing D1-hockey team, currently.)

The chart at the right side of the map page shows attendance data. Along with average attendances of the 12 ECAC teams (2015-16 home regular season figures), arena sizes and percent-capacities are listed. Also shown, below the attendance data, is a list showing all D1-hockey titles which have been won by teams that currently play in the conference (in this case, all titles won by teams in the ECAC). Finally, at the lower-right of the map-page is a chart showing all D1-hockey teams’ titles and Frozen Four appearances (39 of the 60 D1-hockey teams). (Michigan has the most D1-hockey titles, but the Wolverines have not won a hockey title in eighteen years (last in 1998); meanwhile, with North Dakota winning the title last season (2015-16), they have moved past Denver up to second-most D1-hockey titles, with 8. The D1-hockey team with the most Frozen Four appearances is the Boston College Eagles, with 25.)

Five ECAC teams have won D1-hockey titles.
The Rensselaer Engineers of Troy, NY were champions in 1954, and then three decades later, in 1985, RPI won their second title. The Cornell Big Red, of Ithaca, NY, won two D1-hockey titles in a four-year span, in 1967 and in 1970. The Harvard Crimson, of Cambridge, MA, won the 1989 D1-hockey title. And the Yale Bulldogs, of New Haven, CT, were recently D1-hockey champions, in 2013. The 2013 D1-hockey final was contested between two ECAC teams, with Yale defeating nearby rivals Quinnipiac 4-0. And then the following year (2014), the tiny Union College Dutchmen (with about 2,100 undergraduates), won the D1-hockey title…without even having one scholarship player. That, to me, sums up the beauty of D1-hockey. Where minnows can run rampant.

The most recent Frozen Four appearance by an ECAC team was by Quinnipiac in 2016. Overall, Harvard boasts the most Frozen Four appearances by an ECAC team, with 12 (but none since 1994). 11 of the 12 ECAC teams have made it to a Frozen Four, with the exception being Princeton. Last season three ECAC teams qualified for the 16-team D1-hockey tournament – Quinnipiac, Yale, and Harvard.
___
Thanks to all at the following links…
-Thanks to AMK1211 for blank map of USA, ‘File:Blank US Map with borders.svg”>File:Blank US Map with borders.svg‘ (commons.wikimedia.org).
-Thanks to Two Hearted River at en.wikipedia.org/[each teams' page at Wikipedia], for small segments of jersey illustrations of several teams (Wisconsin, Minnesota-Duluth, Cornell, Maine, Minnesota State, Vermont, Yale, UMass, Western Michigan, Canisius College, American International), such as at File:ECAC-Uniform-Cornell.png.
-Thanks to USCHO site for attendance data, Men’s Division I Hockey Attendance: 2015-2016 (uscho.com).
-Thanks to Distance From To site.
-Thanks to FreePik.com (free photo vectors) at freepik.com/free-photos-vectors/shield, for shield-template to make Harvard VE-RI-TAS hockey jersey shoulder-patch-logo.

The location-map here shows the eleven-team Atlantic Hockey Conference (AHC).
The AHC has teams spread through four Northeastern states, plus Colorado. There are 4 teams from New York (Canisius College, Niagara, Rochester Institute of Technology [RIT], US Military Academy [Army]), 3 teams from Massachusetts (American International University [AIC], Bentley, Holy Cross), 2 teams from Pennsylvania (Mercyhurst and Robert Morris), 1 team from Connecticut (Sacred Heart), and 1 team from Colorado (US Air Force Academy).

The map…
The map is based on my recently-posted 60-team NCAA D1-hockey location-map {see it here}. The Atlantic Hockey teams’ crests, colors and arena-locations are shown on the map. Each team’s color-circle, which radiates out from their location-dot, is sized to represent average attendance…the larger the circle, the higher the team’s average attendance. Crowd-size-rank within the 60-team-D1 is also noted – by the number next to the team-name on the map and on the attendance-list. (North Dakota is the highest-drawing D1-hockey team, currently.)

The chart at the right side of the map page shows attendance data. Along with average attendances of the 11 Atlantic hockey teams (2015-16 home regular season figures), arena sizes and percent-capacities are listed. At the lower-right of the map-page is a chart showing all D1-hockey teams’ titles and Frozen Four appearances (39 of the 60 D1-hockey teams).

Of the eleven Atlantic Hockey teams, eight of them are in the bottom ten of D1-hockey attendance…
Not only is Atlantic Hockey full of teams that are decidedly small-program, there are no D1-hockey titles won among its eleven teams. But there are four teams in Atlantic Hockey which are filling their small arenas pretty well. The Mercyhurst Lakers (of Erie, PA) are playing to sell-out crowds most games (they drew 1.2 K in their 1.3-K-capacity arena last season). And the Air Force Falcons, the RIT Tigers, and the Holy Cross Crusaders are all drawing above 75 percent-capacity.

I suspect most teams in Atlantic Hockey do not benefit from much local newspaper coverage or from local television-sports-news coverage, and this contributes to low attendance. Here is an article from the Buffalo News from March 2015, which discusses this, BNRinkside: College hockey attendance analytics (by Amy Moritz at buffalonews.com). In that article it is said that “Atlantic Hockey could do better to promote itself, not just nationally but in its own markets.” But how? If the local media aren’t covering Atlantic Hockey teams because they draw so low, how do you get people to know you even exist? It is a Catch-22-situation that ends up dooming low-drawing Atlantic Hockey teams to small crowds, thanks to a non-existent media footprint. In other words, they don’t get any local news coverage because they draw so poorly, and they draw so poorly because they don’t get any local news coverage.

That being said, there are a few teams in Atlantic Hockey that enjoy decent coverage in their local newspaper, like my hometown’s team, the RIT Tigers (see 2 paragraphs below). And like the Holy Cross Crusaders (of Worcester, MA), as this write-up of a recent game shows. And like Air Force (of Colorado Springs, CO)/see this. And like the two Greater Buffalo-based teams (Canisius College and Niagara)/see this.

But many teams in Atlantic Hockey, like the Robert Morris Patriots (of Moon Township, Greater Pittsburgh, PA), get very spotty coverage (like a report on a game a week ago, but no report on the Robert Morris game versus Bentley on Dec. 10th). Or gets none at all (note how at that link there is a section for the minor-league soccer team [Pittsburgh Riverhounds], but no section at all for any Robert Morris sports teams). And the same can be said – for a complete lack of media coverage – of the two Atlantic Hockey teams within the Greater New York City area: the Sacred Heart Pioneers (of Fairfield, CT) and the Army Black Knights (of West Point, NY). Ditto for the Bentley Falcons (of Waltham, MA), in Boston. I could not find any coverage of the AIC Yellow Jackets in the Springfield, Massachusetts television and print media. And it looks like the Mercyhurst Lakers get less coverage than local high school hockey and the Erie Otters (who play in the Ontario Hockey League and draw 4 times what Mercyhurts draws/see this recent OHL map I made).

In my hometown – Rochester, NY – that is actually not the case, and the RIT Tigers hockey team gets pretty solid coverage in the local newspaper, and from the local cable 24-hour news channel, as well as the local network-television stations (like this: RIT hockey toger toss and this: RIT Hockey Loses Series Against Providence). But that is because my hometown is a real anomaly. Rochester has a population of around 1.1 million in its metro-area (making it the 54th largest city in the USA/see this). Despite that, Rochester is one of the two largest city/metro-areas in the USA without even a D1-college basketball team, let alone any major league teams, or a D1-football team. (The only other city of equal-or-greater-size with that same situation is Grand Rapids, MI [52nd-largest-city in the USA], which also has no major league teams, or D1-football teams, or D1-basketball teams.)

So when the RIT Tigers hockey team made the leap up, from Division III to Division I in 2005, it was relatively big news in my sleepy town, because Rochester finally had a D1 team, albeit only in hockey. But Rochester is a hockey town (the Rochester Amerks are the second-oldest team in the AHL and are the nearby Buffalo Sabres’ top farm team). Now in a new, on-campus 4.3-K-capacity arena, the RIT Tigers lead Atlantic Hockey in attendance, drawing 3.3 K. And the RIT Tigers made it to a Frozen Four (in 2010), which is the only time any Atlantic Hockey team has ever done so.
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Thanks to all at the following links…
-Thanks to AMK1211 for blank map of USA, ‘File:Blank US Map with borders.svg”>File:Blank US Map with borders.svg‘ (commons.wikimedia.org).
-Thanks to Two Hearted River at en.wikipedia.org/[each teams' page at Wikipedia], for small segments of jersey illustrations of several teams (Wisconsin, Minnesota-Duluth, Cornell, Maine, Minnesota State, Vermont, Yale, UMass, Western Michigan, Canisius College, American International), such as at File:ECAC-Uniform-Cornell.png.
-Thanks to USCHO site for attendance data, Men’s Division I Hockey Attendance: 2015-2016 (uscho.com).

The location-map here shows the 6-team (and soon-to-be-7-team) Big Ten Conference hockey.
Big Ten hockey has teams spread through 5 states in the Northeast/Upper Midwest: 2 teams from Michigan (Michigan and Michigan State), 1 team from Minnesota (Minnesota), 1 team from Wisconsin (Wisconsin), 1 team from Ohio (Ohio State), and 1 team from Pennsylvania (Penn State). Next season – 2017-18 – Notre Dame (of Notre Dame, Indiana) will join Big Ten Conference hockey to make it a 7-team conference. So I have included Notre Dame on the map, with a captions describing their future inclusion into Big Ten hockey. I also added Notre Dame’s attendance data. {Also see this, Notre Dame Fighting Irish men’s ice hockey.}

The map…
The map is based on my recently-posted 60-team NCAA D1-hockey location-map {see it here}. The Big Ten hockey teams’ crests, colors and arena-locations are shown on the map. Each team’s color-circle, which radiates out from their location-dot, is sized to represent average attendance…the larger the circle, the higher the team’s average attendance. Crowd-size-rank within the 60-team-D1 is also noted – by the number next to the team-name on the map and on the attendance-list. (North Dakota is the highest-drawing D1-hockey team, currently.)

The chart at the right side of the map page shows attendance data. Along with average attendances of the Big Ten hockey teams (2015-16 home regular season figures), arena sizes and percent-capacities are listed. Also shown, below the attendance data, is a list showing all D1-hockey titles which have been won by teams that currently play in the conference (in this case, all titles won by teams in Big Ten Conference hockey). Finally, at the lower-right of the map-page is a chart showing all D1-hockey teams’ titles and Frozen Four appearances (39 of the 60 D1-hockey teams). (Michigan has the most D1-hockey titles, but the Wolverines have not won a hockey title in eighteen years (last in 1998); meanwhile, with North Dakota winning the title last season (2015-16), they have moved past Denver up to second-most D1-hockey titles, with 8. The D1-hockey team with the most Frozen Four appearances is the Boston College Eagles, with 25.)
…

Division I NCAA hockey was instituted in 1948.
(Division I NCAA hockey titles, 1948 to 2015-16/ 69 titles.)
The inclusion of Penn State as a D1-hockey team (who debuted in 2012-13), led to the 2011-2013-era realignment in D1-hockey. The shakeup in D1-hockey conferences occurred in much the same way (and in nearly the same time-period) as the recent realignments in NCAA D1-football and in NCAA D1-basketball. After the dust had settled in D1-hockey, there was 6 conferences instead of 5, and one conference was dissolved – the Central Collegiate Hockey Associaition (CCHA). (The CCHA existed as a D1-hockey conference from 1973-2013.) (Note: there is one D1-hockey team that is currently an Independent, newcomers Arizona State.)

In D1-hockey these days, the Big Ten is the 800-pound gorilla in the room…
The creation of Big Ten Conference hockey has upset some within the D1-college-hockey community. They fear that the days of small schools being able to compete in D1-hockey may be soon over. And it is not just that small schools have been able to be in, and compete well, in D1-hockey. It is the fact that, going back many decades, small schools within D1-hockey have actually been able to win D1 titles. Like how all three D1-hockey schools from the Upper Peninsula in Michigan (Michigan Tech, Northern Michigan, and Lake Superior State) were able to win D1-hockey titles in the time period from the 1960s up until the mid-1990s. And more recently, like how tiny Union College (of Schenectedy, NY) won the 2014 D1-hockey title. Despite Union College being a school with an enrollment of only around 2,240 undergraduates, and despite the Union College Dutchmen having a D1-hockey team without a single scholarship-player.

Here an excerpt from an article from 2014 from the College Hockey News site, ‘From the get go, there’s been a worry that the formation of the Big Ten would allow the rich to get richer, allow recruiting budgets to go even higher, increase the distance between the big guy and little guy.’ (quote from Stop Complaining – Conference Tournaments’ Attendance, Setup Not Worthy of Scorn by Adam Woden at collegehockeynews.com).

Big Ten hockey did something recently that was by most accounts pretty tone-deaf. They made, unilaterally, a proposal to the NCAA, to toughen the D1-hockey rules for older-aged players’ eligibility, which would end up hurting the smaller schools. (You can read about that in the article at the link below.) That action by Big Ten hockey is being perceived by some as perhaps being a foreshadowing of the big schools throwing their weight around in D1-hockey, to the detriment of the smaller D1-hockey schools. Here is an article from July 2016, from SB Nation, on the Big Ten’s entrance into D1-hockey and how it has some worried (note: the comments section at the link below is also worth reading, as several commenters there raise some interesting points)…The Fabled Big Ten Hockey Conference Is Ruffling Feathers Did you know that many hockey fans outside of the Big Ten are not happy about the conference’s existence? – (by Chris Taylor at blackshoediaries.com).
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Thanks to all at the following links…
-Thanks to AMK1211 for blank map of USA, ‘File:Blank US Map with borders.svg”>File:Blank US Map with borders.svg‘ (commons.wikimedia.org).
-Thanks to Two Hearted River at en.wikipedia.org/[each teams' page at Wikipedia], for small segments of jersey illustrations of several teams (Wisconsin, Minnesota-Duluth, Cornell, Maine, Minnesota State, Vermont, Yale, UMass, Western Michigan, Canisius College, American International), such as at File:ECAC-Uniform-Cornell.png.
-Thanks to USCHO site for attendance data, Men’s Division I Hockey Attendance: 2015-2016 (uscho.com).

The map-page here shows the eight-team National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC) + a chart of all-time D1-hockey titles-&-Frozen-Four-appearances…
The NCHC has teams spread through 6 states: 2 teams from Colorado (Denver and Colorado College [of Colorado Springs, CO), 2 teams from Minnesota (Minnesota-Duluth and St. Cloud), 1 team from North Dakota (North Dakota [of Grand Forks, ND]), 1 team from Michigan (Western Michigan [of Kalamazoo, MI]), 1 team from Ohio (Miami of Ohio [of Oxford, OH]), and 1 team from Nebraska (Omaha). In 2013, Miami of Ohio and Western Michigan left the now-defunct CCHA to join the newly-formed NCHC. Also in 2013, 6 others joined the newly-formed NCHC – Denver, Colorado College, Minnesota-Duluth, North Dakota, Omaha, and St. Cloud. Those 6 teams came from the Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA). The WCHA still exists, but is vastly different from what it was before 2013 – the WCHA now has a vast spread of teams in Alaska, Alabama, Michigan, Minnesota, and Ohio {see WCHA former-members and WCHA timeline}.

The NCHC team the North Dakota Fighting Hawks were champions in D1-hockey in 2016…
{See this recent illustration I made for 2015-16 North Dakota: D1-hockey champions.} As to the all-time records, Michigan (now of Big Ten hockey) has the most D1-hockey titles, but the Wolverines have not won a hockey title in eighteen years (last in 1998). Meanwhile, with North Dakota winning the title last season, North Dakota has moved past Denver up to second-most D1-hockey titles, with 8. The NCHC team the Denver Pioneers won the last of their 7 D-1 hockey titles in 2004 and 2005. There are 2 other NCHC teams which have won D1-hockey titles…the Colorado College Tigers, and the Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs. Colorado College has won 2 D1-hockey titles (albeit both were won over a half century ago, in 1950 and 1957). Minnesota-Duluth won their sole D1-hockey title 6 seasons ago, in 2011.

North Dakota has 22 Frozen Four appearances, which is tied for 4th-best (with Boston University). (The D1-hockey team with the most Frozen Four appearances is the Hockey East team the Boston College Eagles, with 25 Frozen Four appearances.) Another NCHC team is high on the list of Frozen Four appearances – the Denver Pioneers, with 15 (6th-best). To round out the Frozen Four appearances of NCHC teams, the Colorado College Tigers have 10 (last in 2005), and 3 others have one each: the Miami RedHawks (in 2005), the St. Cloud State Huskies (in 2013), and the Omaha Mavericks (in 2015). An indication of the power of the NCHC is that in the 3 seasons it has existed, it has produced 5 of the last 12 Frozen Four qualifiers, with North Dakota qualifying for 3 straight Frozen Fours (2014-16), and with Denver (last season) and Omaha (two seasons ago) also making it to the Frozen Four since the NCHC began operating in 2013-14. So the NCHC is brand new, and it already is basically one of the elite D1-hockey conferences.

NCHC teams draw pretty well too…
Every NCHC team draws above 75 percent-capacity. And 4 of the 8 NCHC teams draw crowds that place them in the top 6 of D1-hockey…#1-best-drawing-team North Dakota Fighting Hawks (drawing 11.6-K, at an impressive 100.5 percent-capacity), #4-best-drawing-team Omaha Mavericks (6.9-K, at 87.6 percent-capacity), #5-best-drawing-team Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs (6.1-K, at a solid 92.6 percent-capacity), and #6-best-drawing-team Colorado College Tigers (6.1-K, at 83.2 percent-capacity). Colorado College’s attendance numbers are even more respectable than it first appears, once you realize that there actually is another D1-hockey team in their home-city of Colorado Springs – Air Force Academy (of the Atlantic Conference).
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Thanks to all at the following links…
-Thanks to AMK1211 for blank map of USA, ‘File:Blank US Map with borders.svg”>File:Blank US Map with borders.svg‘ (commons.wikimedia.org).
-Thanks to Two Hearted River at en.wikipedia.org/[each teams' page at Wikipedia], for small segments of jersey illustrations of several teams (Wisconsin, Minnesota-Duluth, Cornell, Maine, Minnesota State, Vermont, Yale, UMass, Western Michigan, Canisius College, American International), such as at File:ECAC-Uniform-Cornell.png.
-Thanks to USCHO site for attendance data, Men’s Division I Hockey Attendance: 2015-2016 (uscho.com).

Here is a list of all D1-hockey teams (14 teams) which drew above 90 percent-capacity in 2015-16…Team [location], percent-capacity, average attendance, (D-1 attendance-rank).
Penn State Nittany Lions [of University Park, PA], 105.4% at 6,093 per game (#7 in attendance).
Quinnipiac Bobcats [of Hamden, Greater New Haven, CT], 105.2% at 3,247 per game (#27 in attendance).
North Dakota Fighting Hawks [of Grand Forks, ND], 100.5%, at 11,675 per game (#1-best attendance).
Mercyhurst Lakers [of Erie, PA], 98.7%, at 1,283 per game (#54 in attendance).
Minnesota Golden Gophers [of Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN], 98.5% (#2 in attendance.
Providence Friars [of Providence, RI], 98.3%, at 2,980 per game (#29 in attendance).
Yale Bulldogs [of New Haven, CT], 97.1%, at 3,385 per game (#23 in attendance).
Vermont Catamounts [of Burlington, VT], 95.7%, at 3,860 per game (#21 in attendance).
Notre Dame Fighting Irish [of Notre Dame, IN], 94.6%, at 4,749 per game (#16 in attendance).
Cornell Big Red [of Ithaca, NY], 94.3%, at 4,022 per game (#19 in attendance).
Michigan Wolverines [of Ann Arbor, MI], 94.1%, at 5,457 per game (#10 in attendance).
UMass-Lowell River Hawks [of Lowell, Greater Boston, MA], 93.2%, at 5,592 per game, at 6,111 per game (#5 in attendance).
Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs [of Duluth, MN], 92.6%, at 6,111 per game (#5 in attendance).
Merrimack College Warriors [of North Andover, Greater Boston, MA], 92.5, at 2,359 per game (#39 in attendance).
…

Division I NCAA hockey was instituted in 1948.
(Division I NCAA hockey titles, 1948 to 2015-16/ 69 titles.)
The inclusion of Penn State as a D1-hockey team (who debuted in 2012-13), led to the 2011-2013-era realignment in D1-hockey. The shakeup in D1-hockey conferences occurred in much the same way (and in nearly the same time-period) as the recent realignments in NCAA D1-football and in NCAA D1-basketball. After the dust had settled in D1-hockey, there was 6 conferences instead of 5, and one conference was dissolved – the Central Collegiate Hockey Associaition (CCHA). (The CCHA existed as a D1-hockey conference from 1973-2013.) (Note: there is one D1-hockey team that is currently an Independent, newcomers Arizona State.)